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Are we training our ears right?

This subject comes up a lot, and degenerates into questions about what the human brain/ear mechanism is capable of hearing. 

I want to instead discuss what we should be listening for. 

Too many of us (myself often included) treat audio gear as it's own goal.  We train ourselves to hear differences for no other reason than to hear differences.   I got started ages ago in motion picture audio.  Think 1,500 seat auditoriums, not home theater.  I was constantly paying attention to dust on the film and crackling in the surround.  I often couldn't tell if a movie was good or bad because I was trying to clean the film or trace down equipment which was malfunctioning.  It's a terrible way to enjoy movies.  

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that you can train yourself to hear differences in a fuse.  WHY would you do that?  How does that let you enjoy the 45th live recording of the Grateful Dead's Truckin' ?  The neighbor who 100% cannot hear a difference in fuses is going to enjoy your stereo better than you can. 

I'm going to argue that learning to listen to equipment this well is for manufacturers and reviewers.  Maybe we are trying to outdo them, I don't know, but it's not a road that leads us to enjoying music, is it? 

 

 

erik_squires
2psyop's avatar
2psyop
1,943 posts
 

It’s hard to find the question there?? You are making a point?

dekay's avatar
dekay
6,226 posts
 

Better yet learn how to buffer and/or mute such skills.

 

DeKay

jimintally
41 posts
 

I enjoy listening to the equipment, and training myself to hear differences in the music and recordings.

When it sounds really good, I love it....great song, great recording.

I think it's in our nature to want to improve things, especially things we enjoy.

But, I've always been a bit of a "gear-head".  Audio, ham radio, photography, etc.

ghdprentice's avatar
ghdprentice
9,514 posts
 

For the first twenty or thirty years I pursued equipment that sounded better to me. I found I would getting better and better on the things I was listening for and then realize other aspects were sounding worse. I would take a kind of music with me that I happened to be enjoying at the moment and as I modified my system, that kind of music would sound better... others worst. Then by listening attentively I increased all the details I could hear until the venue and mastering technicques stood out.. .but my system had lost the music. 

So I went out looking to figure out what real music sounded like. Whenever I would see an unamplified musical instrument, I'd go listen to it. I listened to acoustical jazz concerts then got seats to the symphony... 7th row center for a decade. I'd listen to what made the symphony sound great... the level of details up front.

Slowly my ears got tuned to what music really sounds like. and then I built my system around that sound. My system is now incredibly addictive and sounds like music. It is hard to listen to the system because the music pulls me away from listening to the speakers or the amplification... and I get lost in the music. 

What a long strange trip it's been. But landed exactly where I wanted to be. 

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